Sunday, August 26, 2007

Swanson - NE State XC Championships

It was a good day at Swanson this past Saturday. I ended up finishing third behind Cam and Kent, but since Cam's from Iowa, I was the silver medalist in the Nebraska State XC championship. Sweet!

We raced six laps on the Swanson course, but race promoter John Lefler Jr. mixed it up a bit and ran the course backwards. This may have leveled the playing field slightly, so the race wasn't a total local-rider romp. Kent was still ultra-fast through the course though. The speed he was ripping the singletrack at on the first lap was impressive.

This was by far my best xc race performance of the season. I was able to stay motivated, strong and mentally engaged for the entire six laps. It was awesome. My Dos Niner was perfect. I had fun.Left: The Man -- Cam Kirkpatrick took the Nebraskans to the bank Saturday and took the money for first place with him back to Iowa. Way to cap off an awesome series Cam!! In this Scott Showen-captured image, Cam leads young jedi Aaron Grady.

Aaron's be the revelation of the 2007 Psycowpath series. He's shown incredible strength consistently this season, but more surprisingly considering his age, he's also shown impressive patience and maturity. Having his family at races cheering all of us on is incredible too. The Grady family may very well be the best cheering squad in all bicycle racing, and I feel fortunate to have them cheering on the sidelines for us.

Monkey Wrench Cycles' Nate Woodman is the Singlespeed State Champion!! Nate triumphed over Mark Savery (Midwest Cycling Community) and Sam Rosenau (Midwest Cycling Community) in the four lap singlespeed race, and ran among the top-10 in the expert class for his entire race, despite starting up to a minute behind them.

Contratulations Nate!!

More racing is coming up this weekend. Some are headed to South Dakota for the Dakota 5-0. I'm heading up to Boone, Iowa for a 12/24 hour race. Not sure what class I'll be racing in yet... Might just butch up and do the 12 hour solo. That'd be a first for me.

i certainly hope you keep riding, bob!! you've got a lot of talent, and hopefully racing mountain bikes has fun for you.

that said, i know that sometimes it's tough to balance the fun to pain ratio when training for the longer expert class races, but my experience says that you race with the people you race against.

you were slaying the sport class, so it'll likely be beneficial for you to have some other riders at similar levels of speed/fitness to you in the expert class. it'll help your speed and bike handling develop more than winning any sport class race ever would.

Congrats on a strong finish, Matt! I had to get out of there when I finished my 4th lap and head back to Iowa. So I just loaded up the bike and took off after I crossed the finish line. The wife was making wild salmon for dinner and I didn't want to miss that...

I got home by about 7:15 and enjoyed a nice recovery meal.

Boone should be a fun event. Weather looks to be 80-84 on Saturday/Sunday with sunshine. Of course, that could all change as we move closer to the weekend, but so far things look to be lining up well for good temperatures (supposed to get down to 64-65 on Saturday night).

I'm trying to convince my wife and kids to come and camp as well as be support crew, but we'll see.

MG, it was good to see you have such a strong finish to the season. Had a great time racing against you and I look forward to doing it again next season. See ya this weekend at Boone. We got a sweet event planned for everyone, lot's of cool stuff going on, not to mention some pretty awesome trails! The weather forecast is also looking pretty good!

mg, congrats on a great race!!!!It's good to see good people ride well:))Mr. Whiskers wants a Salsa bandanna to support your racing...I think, he should support me!?!Anyways, we always like to see you:)

bruce: it sounds like you made a great dinner choice. my post-race meal wasn't nearly as glamorous -- a burger and fries from runza. it sure tasted good though!

hey bruce, would you be bummed with me if i tried a 12-hour solo effort at boone? i'm going to be relatively well supported with my wife, sister-in-law and nieces planning to be in-attendance, and i want to see what that type of pain is all about at least once this season. let me know if that messes up your plans, because if it does, i'll gladly race on a team with you.

cam: thanks for the kudos. it's been a fun season, but one thing i've seen is the benefit of your dedicated training. you've consistently been the man to beat this season, and it's a testament to the commitment you've made to being the best. congratulations on an awesome season yourself!! i really enjoy riding and racing with you.

and finally, christine: you're so sweet. i really appreciate your and martin's support and friendship. mr. whiskers is a rad dog too -- he and i are good buddies. i'll see what i can do about a salsa bandana for him. that'd be cool -- sort of a "super dog" sort of cape. i can see it now.

thanks again everybody. i feel really fortunate to have friends like all of you.

Sunshine, I'm so proud of you! Way to finish up the season. Russ & I were "pedaling our asses" on the Cowboy Trail that morning. Fun time with some of our running/cycling friends and of course the obligatory beer drinking afterwards. Good luck at Boone this weekend. We're hosting the Wilshusens for Kenny's 79th birthday. Plus they want to see the remodeled bathroom. Have a fun time in Iowa; is there such a thing?Love,Mom

Thanks Mom -- Glad to hear you and Russ are enjoying this awesome weather with some well-earned saddle time. You're lucky to have that Cowboy Trail nearby now. Well, that and you've got about a million miles of sweet gravel roads all around you.

Please pass along my birthday wishes to Kenny on his 79th birthday, and have fun with the celebration.